Washington, Oct 26 : Senator Barack Obama, the first Black major-party nominee, is positioned to win the largest share of White voters of any Democrat in more than three decades.

The most recent two weeks of Gallup polling, which includes roughly 13,000 interviews, show 44 percent of non-Hispanic White voters presently support Obama — the highest number for a Democrat since 47 percent of Whites backed Jimmy Carter in 1976, FOX News reported.

Until the stock market swoon in mid-September, Obama had never reached 40 percent among White voters.

Chicago, Oct 26 : While Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has given no indication that she is considering a career outside politics, Hollywood bigwigs are convening strategy sessions of their own.

They are finding the ideal on-air vehicle for the Alaska governor if and when she exits politics.

Canberra, Oct 26: Scientists have come up with an answer to the puzzling question of why life on Earth coincides with a momentous shift in the makeup of the universe.

According to a report by ABC News, research into finding an answer to this mystery was done by Ph. D. student Chas Egan and Charley Lineweaver from Australian National University.

The conundrum has its roots in the way the universe changes as it expands, explained Egan.

Soon after the Big Bang, some 14 billion years ago, most of the energy in the universe was in the form of heat. Later, as the universe cooled and expanded, matter, such as stars and planets, became dominant.

Washington, Oct 26 : A team of scientists may have discovered some hidden clues that may help them identify impending earthquakes, in the form of a multitude of creeping changes underground.

Detecting and interpreting these changes would help forecast earthquakes, but that detection has proven difficult, partly because scientists don’t yet fully understand the complex chain of events that precipitates a quake.

Now, a team of researchers has claimed to find hidden clues that can help them predict looming quakes.

Canberra, Oct 26 : Amateur astronomers are collaborating on an international project to track urban light pollution in the atmosphere, which clouds our view of the stars.

As urban light pollution grows as a problem, a global survey aims to map its spread, with the help of amateur star gazers.

According to a report in Cosmos magazine, the project is known as the Great World Wide Star Count, which pools skyward observations taken by citizens around the world.

The information helps scientists measure the extent to which city lights mask the visibility of stars.

Washington, Oct 26 : A new study has revealed that voters are subconsciously swayed by candidates who share their facial features.

The study was conducted by Jeremy Bailenson, an assistant professor of communication, and Shanto Iyengar, the Harry and Norman Chandler Professor in Communication.

In three experiments, the researchers and their graduate students worked with cheap, easy-to-use computer software to morph pictures of about 600 test subjects with photos of politicians.

And they kept coming up with the same results: For the would-be voters who weren''t very familiar with the candidates or in perfect lockstep with their positions or political parties, the facial similarity was enough to clinch their votes.